THE BALKANS UNEASY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 69, 2 January 1941, Page 5

THE BALKANS UNEASY.

GERMAN MOVE AGAINST GREECE.

STALIN WARNS RUSSIA. (United Press Association —Copyright./ LONDON, January 1. Uneasiness in the Balkans is again reflected in messages from Europe. M. Stalin, in an article in the Soviet newspaper “Pravda,” declared that the danger of war for Russia had increased and there might be unprecedented developments. “We must leave no opening for our deadly enemies to catch us unawares,” he said. Hungary, according to the Budapest correspondent of the Associated Pregs of Great Britain, is reported to have begun calling up thousands of. troops and is planning total mobilisation by January 15. The flow of German troops over Hungarian railways has reached capacity by day and by night. A Rumanian decree provides for daily air-raid rehearsals at 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Russian military activity has been renewed on the highways from Lwow to the Slovak frontier.

A Belgrade message says that reports from travellers from the Rumanian frontier say that the Germans are digging trenches and preparing fortified lines in Rumania about 15 miles from the frontier, facing thei Yugoslav frontier, along the entire length of Rumania.

Another Budapest message says that the latest rumour of Germany’s Balkan move is connected with a gigantic scheme to take Greece from the rear by droves of parachutists from Rumania, thus technically preserving the neutrality of both Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and simultaneously to use the air arm to the fullest extent from Rumanian bases, which at no point are much more than an hour’s flight from Thrace. The whole scheme would also serve as a rehearsal of an attempt to invade Britain. It might initially involve 100,000 parachutists, who could be provisioned from the air until they had established a foothold.

The Sofia correspondent of “The Times” states that King. Boris of Bulgaria has received his Prime Minister (M. Filoff), and is believed to have conferred chiefly on problems of foreign relationships. M. Popoff, closing a debate in Parliament on foreign affairs, declared that there was no justification for any change in Bulgaria’s foreign policy. The Government was determined not to change its policy. It was emphasised that Bulgarians should lean neither to the left nor .to the right, and should not be influenced by street psychology. The Government would do everything ,to defend the country if an emergency should arise. Bulgarians did not like war, but they would fight if the necessity arose.

The Ankara correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says reliable observers who have arrived from Rumania confirm that sabotage is occurring almost every day. It greatly increased in December, -with grave effects on oilfields, refineries, and railway tracks. Exhaustive efforts to discover the culprits have: failed. Shortage of food and fuel is bitterly felt throughout the country. The population of mapy regions is reported to be almost starving. German troops, however, are receiving numberless trainloads of food, clothing, and other commodities bought with the Rumanians’ own money, or requisitioned. Unrest is growing among the middle class and the poor, who are the chief sufferers since the Iron Guard assumed power.

Passive resistance is growing because the people realise that the Iron Guard presented the country to the Germans to satisfy their own ambitions. It is reliably estimated, the correspondent adds, that only 65,000 Germans are in Rumania.